Mom of teen hit by van near bus stop sues school district

Friday

Jul 31, 2009 at 12:01 AM

The mom of a former Kanapaha Middle School student has sued the Alachua County School District for negligence over a June 2008 crash in which her daughter walked into the road near a school bus stop and was hit by a van.

By Christopher CurryStaff writer

The mother of a former Kanapaha Middle School student has sued the Alachua County School District for negligence over a June 2008 crash in which her daughter walked into the road near a school bus stop along Southwest 20th Avenue and was hit by a van.The suit alleges that the school bus stop was in an unsafe location and that the district was lax in the communication and enforcement of a policy mandating where students must stand in the morning while they waited for the school bus.The crash occurred at approximately 8:26 a.m. on June 4, 2008 - the last day of the 2007-08 school year.The day that Tiffany Chancey was injured, she was graduating from Kanapaha.Chancey, now age 15 and going into her sophomore year at Buchholz High, was at a bus stop along the north side of Southwest 20th Avenue - just east of the Southwest 40th Terrace entrance to Lyons Apartments.According to the lawsuit, Chancey stepped into the westbound lane while attempting to cross the road to talk to another student and was hit by a 1987 Chevrolet van."I don't really remember anything but waking up in the hospital," Chancey said.The driver of the van was not cited in the crash.Chancey said she suffered a broken tibia, a broken fibula, a fractured pelvis and a head injury that continues to give her severe headaches.Terry Kann, the Gainesville attorney representing Chancey and her mother, Julie Winslow, said the school district's policy called for the students who live in the apartment complexes on the south side of Southwest 20th Avenue, across the street from the bus stop, to gather and wait on the south side of the roadway until the school bus arrives, extends its stop arm and turns on its lights.

Only then were they to cross the street and board the bus.The suit alleges that the district did not adequately communicate that policy to parents and students or enforce it, so it was routine for students such as Chancey to cross to the north side of the road before the bus arrived."There's a disconnect between what the official policy is and what everybody is doing," Kann said.The suit also alleges that the bus stop on the north side of the road was unsafe because it was located along a heavily traveled roadway at a spot with no sidewalk and a narrow grass shoulder that drops off into a ditch.The location was also unsafe because there was no crosswalk or traffic light, the suit alleges.School district spokeswoman Jackie Johnson said district officials would not, at this point, respond to the allegations."We cannot discuss an active case," she said.Johnson said the bus stop was at the same location during the 2008-09 school year and bus stop locations for 2009-10 have not been set yet.